#hermit bars

Just posted: Easy Baking with Pantry Ingredients

Here are nine Easy Baking recipes from past blogs that use pantry ingredients you hopefully have on hand.  I tried to find something for every time of the day, every type of recipe and every taste. With Easter around the corner, many of these can be made ahead and stored in the freezer to add ...

These spicy fruit bars get their name from their long-keeping quality.

ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES PLUS COOLING • BAKE TIME: 26 MINUTES PER BATCH

MAKES 96 COOKIES

Ingredients:

6 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

11⁄2 teaspoons baking powder

11⁄2 teaspoons baking soda

11⁄2 teaspoons ground ginger

3⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3⁄4 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves

3 cups packed brown sugar

11⁄2 cups butter or margarine

(3 sticks), softened

1 cup dark molasses

3 large eggs

3 cups dark raisins

3 cups pecans

Method:

1 • Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour two large cookie sheets.

2 • In large bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda,

ginger, nutmeg, salt, and cloves until blended.

3 • In separate large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat brown

sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses until well combined.

Beat in eggs. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture just until

blended, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With wooden

spoon, stir in raisins and pecans, if using, just until combined.

4 • Divide dough into thirds, then divide each third into quarters. With

lightly floured hands, shape each quarter into 12" by 11⁄2" log. Place 2 logs,

3 inches apart, on each prepared cookie sheet. Cover remaining 8 logs

with damp kitchen towel.

5 • Bake until logs have flattened and edges are firm, 13 to 15 minutes. Cool

logs on cookie sheets on wire racks, about 15 minutes.

6 • Transfer logs to cutting board. Slice each log crosswise into 8 cookies.

Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Grease and flour completely

cooled cookie sheets and repeat with remaining 8 logs.

EACH COOKIE: About 105 calories, 1 g protein, 19 g carbohydrate, 3 g total fat (2 g saturated),